Philip Kirkham, quote found in Webster's New World, Dictionary of Quotable Definitions, ed. by Eugene E. Brussell, 1988
Questions:
Do you have any toys from your childhood?
Looking back at your childhood, what was your favorite toy?
Any comments on the often quoted comment: "The only difference between boys and men is the size of their toys."
Have you ever played toys with your grandchildren?
Saturday, June 23, 2012
POWER
June 23, 2012 Quote for Today
"A person is measured by what they do with power."
Pittacus [650? - 569? B.C.]
Questions:
If someone asked you to name your 3 key strengths or powers, what would they be?
1)
2)
3)
Have you ever felt someone used their powers to overpower you - or to put you down - or use you to build themselves up? Was it their looks? Was it their money? Was it their intelligence? Was it their age?
What's your take on Philippians 2: 5b-11?
Friday, June 22, 2012
WARS
AND RUMORS OF WAR
June 22, 2012 Quote for Today
"In the last 4000 years of history, there have been but 268 years entirely free from war."
Coronet
Painting on top: "Study for the Rescue of the Colors," 1899 by William T. Trego (1859-1909) - whose work was on exhibit at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania - from June 4th till October 2, 2011.
Questions: At this time we are not only looking at the War of 1812 [200 years], but we also keeping in mind the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Have you done any reading or attended any reenactments or presentations on either of these wars that took place on our soil.
Looking at the quote for today, what's your take on it? Is it correct? What was considered a war? Could there have been a power grab and some big time infighting in some place in China or Africa or South America that was never recorded in written history?
What about family wars and fights?
Thursday, June 21, 2012
MAKEUP
June 21, 2012 Quote for Today
"Once I tried to explain to a fellow feminist why I liked wearing makeup: she replied by explaining why she does not. Neither of us understood a word the other said."
Nora Ephron, "On Never Having Been a Prom Queen, August 1972, Crazy Salad: Some Things about Women, 1975
Observations: Looking back at yesterday, re-look at a moment, when the above was true for you. Look in the mirror, looking into your own eyes, say, "Hi in there!" Ask, "How are you today!" Ask, "What's going on?" Ask, "What's happening?"
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
EXCELLENCE
June 20, 2012 Quote for Today
"The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous."
Shana Alexander, The Feminist Eye: Neglected Kids - The Bright Ones, 1970
Questions:
Who makes you nervous? What makes you nervous? Where were you in your class rankings? Were they accurate? Were they fair? When you haven't prepared - and another or others have - what happens to your self perception? Where do you feel you are excellent? Where do you feel adequate? Where and when do you feel inadequate? Does anyone make you feel inadequate? How about God's take on you? Who says that is accurate?
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
WORK
June 19, 2012
Quote for Today
"No
race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling the
field as in writing a poem."
Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery
Questions: Do you have
prejudices against particular
jobs?
Do you value a job by the salary or the work or how much a person loves her or his job or what have you?
Have you done any farming or gardening or written any poetry lately?
Before you cut an apple, or a tomato or a banana, do you pause to think about how many hands have worked to get this apple, tomoato or banana to you?
Have you read the poems and
writings of the farmer Wendell Berry? Here's a listing of 2 that are on my bookshelf: Collected Poems, 1957-1982, North Point Press, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, Eleventh Printing, 1999; A Timbered Choir, Counterpoint, Berkeley, 1998
GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 11 Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Going Against the Grain.”
Today’s readings - especially today’s gospel - triggered for me the thought: going against the grain.
Today’s gospel has Jesus the Carpenter telling us how to deal with our enemies. Love them. Greet them. [Cf. Matthew 5:43-48]
Yesterday Jesus told us to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile. Tough stuff. Jesus wants to change the prevailing customs and culture. Difficult stuff. His secret: change oneself and you’ll change half of a difficult relationship. Start with self. Go against the grain. Die to self. Die to the way you want to actually react.
There are opportunities every day to do just that. Yesterday on the way into church someone told me about what happened to her the day before just as she was leaving Sunday Mass. She was stepping off the curb - heading for the church parking lot at St. John Neumann. She paused, hesitated, not knowing whether a car moving along slowly heading for the road out to the exit was going to stop or what? The man in the car signaled that she should walk across in front of him. She did, but then as he went by, he said to her, “Jerk!”
She said it ruined the rest of her day. The natural way to react to that is not to turn the other cheek - but to yell back at the person or point a finger at such a person. She said she had turned toward him to say, “Thank you” and give him a smile. Afterwards I thought to myself, that would have been the perfect response when called a “Jerk!” The best come-back at times is a “Thank you!”
TODAY’S FIRST READING
Today’s first reading from First Kings continues the story of Ahab and Jezebel. Ahab changes - just a bit - when the prophet Elijah challenges him. But notice, his motive is not love. It’s fear. Warnings can be like a slap on one cheek - slap in the face. Elijah tells him that he’s going to die in the fields with wild dogs licking his blood and birds will be pecking on his flesh. Tough stuff. [Cf. 1 Kings 21:17-29.]
As we know fear gets us on the right path more often than goodness or love or the high, high ideals of Jesus.
We might want to scream back at the person who cuts us off or calls us names - but we fear the kids will see us or someone will think less of us. Fear works. Fear works more than love. However, hopefully, in the long run, we know that love lasts longer than fear.
GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN
Going against the grain can be a pain. In fact it is. It’s a dying. It’s the cross once again. Yet, we know that Jesus taught while on the wood of the cross forgiveness comes before resurrection. Saying inwardly or outwardly, “Father forgive him or her, she doesn’t know what she is doing,” can bring an end to that violence. That’s vintage Jesus.
That’s what Gandhi got out of Jesus big time.
CONCLUSION
As I’m listening to the words of this homily, they sound somewhat to be against the grain. They are a bit jarring and somewhat edgy. So too love. It’s going against the grain to put into play Jesus’ kind of love.
Anger [the bad kind] - or violence - or retaliation - don't go against the grain. They are just a sliding along - a reacting the normal way.
We've seen on Discovery Channel or somewhere that salmon have to swim upstream to spawn - to deposit their eggs. They swim against the flow - against the stream. And if they don’t struggle to swim upstream - they will end up floating themselves out of existence.
I suppose - whatever works - has taken hard work.
You see that nice clean waxed - shiny car - it didn’t just happen.
You see those beautiful varnished glistening wooden floors in my house, they too just didn’t happen.
The farmer needs to remember last year’s harvest - as he works the fields for this coming harvest. To get eucharist, you need bread and wine; to get bread and wine, you need wheat and grapes; to get wheat and grapes, you need to do some hard work.
To be a Saint, to be a Christian, means traveling the tiny, narrow, difficult road.
To love one’s enemies is a dying to self. It’s difficult to put a zipper on our mouth so as to stop the flow of angry words. It’s Jesus way to break the cycles of anger and easy hate and bring peace to our peace of land - our brain. That’s the perfect garden - the perfect plot of land - we all want: a cultivated peaceful brain.
